The Garden and Desert of Good and Evil
Matthew 4:1-11
March 1, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
“Why can’t women be pastors?” That was the question a week ago Friday in the 7th and 8th grade classroom at Prince of Peace. The association pastors host “Pizza with the Pastors” every few months at the school. The whole school gets free pizza and we get an hour of questions from the 7th and 8th graders.
Four pastors. Four answers. All good. All God-pleasing. All in accord with God’s Word. One pastor said, “God ordered men to preach because Adam was silent when his wife was under attack by the Devil.” Another pastor said, “God’s Word forbids it.” When it was my turn I asked the students a question, “Why can’t a man have babies?” One of the girls put it in 8th grade terms, “Because men don’t have the facilities.” She was right. Women alone were given the room of the womb in which a baby grows until it is born.
It is deadly to take what God has not given you. That’s what we learn from the Garden in Genesis and from the Desert in Matthew. Adam and Eve took the fruit. They took what God did not give them and they lost their lives, their marriage, and their love for one another. Jesus only took what His Father gave Him. He did not take advantage of His divinity for His own stomach. He did not test God against His Word. He did not use His authority to gain power over the earth. And in receiving what God had given Him Jesus saved us from ourselves and made us God’s children once again.
God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed for life and by giving them each other He gave them the gift of multiplying life. Satan tempted them to take what God had not given them. Eve took Satan’s Word over God’s Word. Adam left the pulpit in which God had placed him. You see, Adam was the first pastor. Eve wasn’t around when God told Adam everything in the garden was his to use, except for that fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. How did Eve know not to eat, not to touch, to stay away? Adam was a good preacher. He gave her God’s Word. Eve, don’t go near that tree. God has not given us that fruit. Amen. In the beginning sermons were short.
They took what God had not given them which means they took God’s place. They decided for themselves where life was to be found. They lost faith in God. Satan convinced them that God was holding out on them. Instead of being children they took their Father’s place. Instead of humbly receiving they selfishly took. And then they fell. That’s what this is called – the fall of man. They fell from their places. They fell from loving their Father to fearing His presence. They ran away from Him instead of toward Him. Adam didn’t guard his bride. He sacrificed her and threw her out in front of God hoping her life would spare his. Eve blamed the serpent Satan and that was really blaming God for He created the angels and all the creatures.
If you look in the mirror of God’s law you’ll see that you’re a chip off the old block. We men look like our father Adam and you women look like your mother Eve. Is not all sin taking what God has not given you? You use God’s name to curse or swear or as your favorite explicative instead of calling upon God in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. You use God’s Sabbath not to rest in His house, but to play in the house of your choosing. He has surrounded us with people to serve and instead we want to use them. He has given us a bounty of daily bread so we can live in faith toward Him and love toward our neighbor, and instead we worship our daily bread and compete with our neighbor.
Why can’t women be pastors? Because pastors stand in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ. They stand in the place of the Bridegroom to woo and love and cover the bride of Christ, you, with His forgiveness and His righteousness. Do you want to know what happens in churches where women become pastors? Marriage is destroyed. If a woman can take a man’s place, then a man can marry a man, and a woman can become a man and unborn babies are not living humans, but inconvenient clumps of cells. When you take what God has not given you make a mess of yourself and everyone else. You bring death where life once ruled. You fall – dead.
But take heart, Adam wasn’t the last good man. There was another man in history like Adam, created not from the dust of the ground, but from the seed of Mary and the Word of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus of Nazareth was born Satan slithered after Him like he did Adam and Eve. Before Jesus was born Satan turned Joseph’s heart against Mary and then He turned Herod’s swords against the toddler Jesus. When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit led Him not into a garden, but a desert. Jesus wasn’t full of good food like Adam. He fasted for forty days and Satan came to tempt Him..
In every temptation Satan enticed Jesus to take what God had not given Him. Use your Godly power to make these stones into bread. Serve your belly, not your Father. Don’t trust God. Test Him to prove you really are His Son. Don’t wait for your Father to give you glory. Seek glory now, grab the world for yourself. What did Jesus of Nazareth rely upon to answer Satan? Not His Divine Power. Not His legions of angels. He used what every one of you has at your disposal. He used God’s own Word. Every “No” to sin and temptation that Jesus spoke began, “It is written.” “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” Jesus scores a hattrick and Satan is shut out. Jesus didn’t merely win the battle. He won the battle for you.
Know this about the Second Adam, your Savior Jesus Christ. He always and only took what His Father gave Him. The Son willingly took on human flesh. He took on the filthy water of a sinner’s baptism. He took on Satan with His Father’s Word and defended His bride. He took your sin, the hell of being forsaken by His Father, death on the cross. You want to see what a real man looks like – see Jesus dying for His bride, loving His beloved even when she isn’t lovely, and using everything the Father has given Him to make her beautiful, precious, and holy in His sight.
Why can’t women be pastors? Because it destroys the differences between male and female. Because it undermines marriage between one man and one woman, but above all it undoes the Gospel. The world started with one man and one woman in a garden. They fell when they took what God had not given them. The world was redeemed when One Man took on Satan, sin, and death for His bride in a desert and on a skull shaped hill. He used everything He had for His beloved. Remember where that story ends, in a garden, with an empty tomb, with One man Jesus appearing to one woman Mary Magdalene. The story finally ends when Jesus brings His bride the Church home to the new paradise. That’s what you lose with women pastors and that’s what you receive in the name of Jesus. Amen.